reply to post by TheComte
An interesting case to be sure, but what I disagree with is that a neighbor decided to open fire on someone he suspected of burglarising a home that
did not belong to him.
Had it been his own home, I would absolutely agree with his actions. His duty however in this instance should have been to report the incident to the
police and let them deal with the crime. He obviously had time to record the licence plate number on the back of the car and have a description of the
people he suspected of burglarising the home. Instead he decided to play johnny law and put someone in critical condition. The suspected thief
deserves to be tried and perhaps convicted then sentenced to time behind bars. However now this man may never walk again depending on the extent of
his injury.
If it were his own property I would be completely behind this man, I believe that a person has the right to defend their own property, even using
deadly force to do so, but to step outside of ones own property line, this in my opinion is vigilante justice and I feel that the homeowner is now
just as much of a criminal as those he sought to thwart with his actions.
My issue with this case involves the property line. What is his to defend versus what is his to report. A good citizen and neighbor would have taken
notes, recordings even, and turned them over to the police to let them do their work. However this man decided to take matters into his own hands. He
decided to circumvent the law and play judge jury and potential executioner to people that were robing someone else's home. This was not his call to
make, The appropriate action would have been to notify the police of the robbery and let them handle it.
Like I said, if it were his own property, I would be behind him 100% A man's home is his castle and he has the right to defend that property. But to
be a good neighbor one also must respect the right of his neighbor to defend his own property how he sees fit. This man did not, he chose to make the
decision for his neighbor, now another man that perhaps does belong in jail is in the hospital.
Justice was not served here. Vigilante-ism was carried out instead. This is a nation of laws, and we as Americans have the duty to adhere to those
laws and respect the rules of conduct to the exicution of those laws.
In my opinion the neighbor that chose to take the law into his own hands (even if it were under the best of intentions) does deserve to be punished.
